NDIS Practice Standards Explained: Modules, Quality Indicators and the SIL Standards

The short version: the NDIS Practice Standards are the quality standards registered NDIS providers must meet. They are split into modules: a Core Module for providers delivering higher-risk supports, supplementary modules that apply depending on what you deliver, and a Verification Module for lower-risk supports. Each module sets outcomes, and each outcome has quality indicators that auditors assess you against. SIL providers have had an extra set of standards since 1 July 2026. Everything below links to the NDIS Commission's Practice Standards pages so you can check it.

What the NDIS Practice Standards are

In the Commission's words, the Standards "specify the quality standards that need to be met by registered NDIS providers delivering supports and services to NDIS participants". They also tell participants what quality service they should expect from a registered provider. They sit under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, and the full text is in the Commission's NDIS Practice Standards and Quality Indicators document.

They bind registered providers. Unregistered providers are not audited against them, but they are still bound by the NDIS Code of Conduct, and with mandatory registration expanding from 1 July 2027 many will be audited against these Standards within a few years.

Outcomes and quality indicators

Every module is built the same way. Outcomes are high-level and written from the participant's point of view. Under each outcome sit quality indicators, which the Commission describes as what "auditors use to assess compliance with the NDIS Practice Standards and indicate how providers may show compliance".

That second half matters. A quality indicator is not only a test, it is a description of the evidence that satisfies it. Reading the indicators for each outcome that applies to you is the most direct way to see what an audit will ask for. A non-conformity is a gap between what an indicator requires and what your evidence shows.

The Core Module

The Core Module applies to all registered providers delivering higher-risk supports, which in practice means any provider facing a certification audit. It has four divisions:

• Rights and responsibilities: person-centred supports; individual values and beliefs; privacy and dignity; independence and informed choice; violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination.
• Provider governance and operational management: governance and operational management; risk management; quality management; information management; feedback and complaints management; incident management; human resource management; continuity of supports; emergency and disaster management.
• Provision of supports: access to supports; support planning; service agreements with participants; responsive support provision; transitions to or from a provider.
• Provision of supports environment: safe environment; participant money and property; management of medication; mealtime management; management of waste.

Governance and operational management is the largest division, and it is where most findings come from, because its outcomes depend on processes being run every day rather than documents existing. Our NDIS compliance checklist works through all four divisions with the evidence that proves each one.

Supplementary modules

Supplementary modules apply on top of the Core Module, depending on the supports you deliver. The Commission lists seven:

• High intensity daily personal activities
• Specialist behaviour support
• Implementing behaviour support plans
• Early childhood supports
• Specialised support coordination
• Specialist disability accommodation
• Supported independent living (from 1 July 2026)

Most line up with a registration group of the same name. You do not choose modules directly: they follow from the registration groups and supports in your application, and the initial scope of audit the Commission sends after you apply lists the modules you will be assessed against. Our full list of NDIS registration groups shows which groups need a certification audit.

The Verification Module

Providers delivering only lower-risk, lower-complexity supports are assessed against the Verification Module instead of the Core Module. It covers four areas: human resource management, incident management, complaints management, and risk management. It is assessed through a verification audit, a desktop review of documentary evidence. If an application includes any group that needs a certification audit, the whole application moves to certification and the Core Module applies.

The SIL Practice Standards (from 1 July 2026)

Supported independent living providers have had to meet new SIL Practice Standards since 1 July 2026, alongside the Core Module. The Commission developed them with Inclusion Australia and people with disability, and tested the supported decision-making standard alongside the Core Module in real audits in February and March 2026. There are four standards:

• Supported decision-making
• Safeguarding
• Practice governance
• Agreements about tenancy, housing and support arrangements

The Commission says the new standards "focus on the voice, rights and freedoms of participants" and "emphasise what good practice looks like in the home". They also introduce Expectation Statements, which set out the perspectives of participants, workers and providers, and the Commission has published an evidence guide for providers and workers. Our SIL audit checklist covers what a Stage 1 and Stage 2 audit tests under them.

Are the Practice Standards changing?

Yes, in two ways. The SIL standards above are the first change and are already in force. Separately, the Commission has run a national consultation for a wider NDIS Practice Standards review, covering a proposed NDIS Quality Framework and changes to the Standards and how they are assessed. As at the time of writing, the Commission says it is considering the feedback to inform next steps, and no new general standards have been published or dated. Treat any source quoting a commencement date for "new NDIS Practice Standards" beyond SIL with caution unless it links to the Commission.

The mandatory registration expansion from 1 July 2027 is a separate change: it widens who must be registered, not what the Standards say. Our 2027 mandatory registration guide tracks what is confirmed.

How to use the Standards before an audit

• Work out which modules apply. Core or Verification, plus any supplementary modules your registration groups bring in. The scope of audit is the final word.
• Read the quality indicators, not just the outcomes. The indicators are what gets assessed.
• Map evidence to each indicator. For every indicator, name the policy that says what you do, the record showing it was done, and a worker who can describe doing it.
• Close the gaps that depend on routine. Registers that stopped moving, reviews that were never held and screening that lapsed are the common findings, and they take months to show a track record.

How Compliance Care helps

We map your services to the modules that apply, then build evidence against each quality indicator that reflects how your organisation actually runs. Audits are carried out by independent approved quality auditors from the Commission's list; our job is to make sure your practice holds up to that review. If you want to know where you stand against the Standards, book a discovery call.